The
previous track discussed the technique of creating pain-free time to use with
a depressed client.

As
you know, your client's mood state is a matter of their perception of events that have occurred to them. For Ed, who wrote plays for his community theater,
having thoughts of pleasant events in his mind affected his depression in two
different ways.
Two Ways Ed's Depression Afffected his Mind --1. As with meditation, work, and exercise, thinking
about happy events substituted for the negative self-comparisons that caused
him to be depressed. For example, if the audience laughed louder at the play he
wrote or clapped more, Ed would feel better.--2. Thinking about happy events, getting positive feelings from memories and
positive feelings from expectations of future events, is just as important as
the happy events themselves. As Dostoyevsky remarked, "One really good memory
will go a long way - if you make good use of it."

Do
you agree that it is a characteristic of depressives to dwell on self-comparisons,
and not dwell upon memories of past pleasures and expectations of future pleasures?
I explained to Ed that this is a tendency that can be changed if he works hard
at changing. Ed can change if he will allow himself to, and practice it regularly.

I
told Ed the story of a corporate executive, Rolland G., who always had his mind
on productive thoughts about his job. For example, Rolland would think about who
he had to instruct to do what. He would think about what he had to remember to
check before sending out his products, the job evaluation forms he had to fill
out for his assistant, and so on. Rolland G. felt that he ought to be taking advantage
of spare moments to get more done, and he constantly did so - except when negative
self-evaluations flooded his mood and made him sad, which was often.

Then, Rolland
came to realize that it was not necessary to be perfect. Pleasurable thoughts,
such as spending five minutes alone or with his wife, reminiscing about the great
times he had had with his children, and thinking about upcoming events such as
his daughter's dance recital, pushed out negative self comparisons.

I
asked Ed, "How can you get yourself to spend more time remembering and expecting
those happy events that are in everyone's life?" I explained to Ed, "By
working at it and teaching yourself this habit, that's one way you can train yourself.
When you start to ruminate over your audience's poor reaction, shift your thoughts
to the reactions that were better, and stay in those happy times for a few minutes before moving on to other thoughts."

Causes
of DistortionWhy
should some people's interpretations of their present conditions and life experiences
be inaccurate or distorted in such manner that depression is brought on?

Albert
Ellis and Aaron Beck explain most depression as due to poor thinking and distorted
interpretations of present reality, and they analyze the present operation of
the mechanism without delving into the past causes of such bad thinking. They
believe that just as a student can be taught to do valid social-science in a university,
and just as a child in school can improve his or her information-gathering and
reasoning with guided practice, so can depressives be taught better information-gathering
and processing by education in the course of psychotherapy.

Indeed,
it is reasonable that if your client views their situation in the light of a biased
sample of experience, an incorrect "statistical" analysis of their life's
data, an unsound definition of the situation, they are likely to misinterpret
their reality. For example, anthropologist Molly H. was often depressed for long
periods of time whenever one of her professional papers was rejected by a professional
journal. She ignored all of her acceptances and successes and focused only on
the present rejection, just as Ed did with the audience's reaction to his plays.
Cognitive therapy trained Molly to consider a wider sample of her life experience
after such a rejection and, hence, reduced her sadness and shortened her depressed
periods.

A
crucial issue in depression is whether your client interprets contemporary
events in their lives accurately, or instead distorts them in such a manner as
to make them seem more negative than they really are. In this case, your clients
are only taking in negatively-perceived events.

The
choice of whom to compare themselves with is one of the important ways that your
depressive clients structure their view of life. Some of these choices lead to
frequent negative comparisons and consequent unhappiness.

Online Continuing Education QUESTION
17What can be more important than you client's mood, which is created
by their perception of events? To select and enter your answer go to CEU Answer
Booklet.